Howling Banshee Squad

"We are the harbingers of death."

An aspect chosen mostly by female Eldar, Howling Banshees focus on close-quarters combat, their power swords being their weapon of choice. They charge into battle chanting death calls, their distorted masks meant to shock and break the enemy before the Howling Banshees close the range and bring down their blades.

Tactics

Howling Banshees are the melee specialists for the Eldar. Alone and unupgraded, they are outmatched by other races, but when upgraded sufficiently and used in conjunction with other Aspect Warriors, Banshees can outmatch and outpace other melee specialists.

Howling Banshees are extremely agile: when thrown about or disrupted, they only require half a second to recover and resume their attack. Though extremely light initially and very vulnerable to being spread out by area of effect disruption, the armour upgrades reduce the distance that they fly when knocked about.

Call of War is a critical upgrade in order for Howling Banshees to be used at their fullest. The extreme boost to damage, HP, and Exarch staying power immediately transform Banshees into incredibly powerful forces. Because of this, it is recommended as the first upgrade to get once the Soul Shrine is up if you have any Howling Banshees out already (The DPS tables below reflect this by not giving any values for optics upgradeswithoutCall of War).

The Call of War upgrade also boosts the running speed of Howling Banshees by a full 33% and enables charge bonuses. This means that Banshees using the Fleet of Foot ability will move as quickly as a Predator or Rhino, while within close range of the enemy they will move even faster to close into melee. This can be used to your advantage against troops with a setup time or against ranged specialists to negate their firepower.

The Howling Banshee Exarch is a large source of the squad's effectiveness. In addition to the sheer power of her Executioner when upgraded with Call of War, the Exarch's 15% addition to damage to the rest of the squad means that her presence can easily tip the favor of a skirmish in the favor of the Banshees.

Their vehicle and building damage is relatively low compared to their infantry damage, so it is best to leave those targets to be handled by Fire Dragon Aspect Warriors or Wraithlords. Howling Banshees with an Exarch are, however, Eldar's most cost-efficient anti-building units in Tier 1, so should you choose the Banshee Aspect at the beginning of the game you can harass Listening Posts and Generators far more efficiently than with either Guardians or Dark Reapers.